A Countdown Bus Stop for Hither Green

Transport for London (TfL) is currently consulting on the location for 2500 new countdown displays for bus stops to be rolled out across London next year.
The map of the locations for Lewisham has been published, unfortunately not one of these displays has been allocated to Hither Green Lane (click on map to enlarge).

We Lewisham Central Liberal Democrats think that there is a strong case for one of these displays to be placed on Hither Green Lane, we also think that we fit well one of the criteria chosen by TfL for eligibility, that of interchange value, especially when including walking as an alternative, a mode of transport that’s often only praised but not actually promoted through transport strategies.

In fact many waits for the bus on Hither Green Lane are either made to go to Lewisham Station for the DLR or to Lewisham Market, both places that are in reach by walk and a decision to walk could often be made if the time for the wait was known.
What instead currently happens is that people dithers in indecision indefinitely, until, often much later, the bus arrives, and many times when it does it’s overcrowded.

We also have a train station, which obviously increases the interchange value even further, as many people do take a bus after the train and this means that a countdown display would be of value also to people living beyond the immediate vicinity of the bus stop.

In both these cases a known wait would often result in reduced overcrowding on buses and an increase in pedestrian journeys, both very positive results from the point of view of transport planning, and it’s with this argument that we ask for a countdown display for Hither Green. Our proposed locations are Hither Green Lane and Springbank Road.

TfL is consulting with Councils, not individuals (click here for the consultation documents pack), but we decided that we will make a representation anyway and we also found a powerful advocate in Caroline Pidgeon AM, who is the Chair of the Transport Committee at the Greater London Assembly and will support our case.

Please add your name to our petition, and if your personal experience is one where a countdown display would clearly be of benefit then please tell us about it in the comment box so we can submit it as a sample case.

2 Responses to “A Countdown Bus Stop for Hither Green”

I would suggest that another point for a bus indicator would be at the stop towards Lewisham, just past the Co-Op on Hither Green Lane. This is a very busy pick-up point and would be of considerabler benefit to travellers.
Whilst on the subject of the busses, could something please be done to combine the 181 and 225 stops at Lewishan DLR in the direct of Hither Green. It is so frustrating to be waiting at one stgop only to see a service call the the other. It is fine for youngsters to dash between stops, but for the less mobile it is hopeless to even try as you are bound to miss the bus!

Thanks Peter, you’re right, there are a few stops that are rather busy along the route and we’ll add this proposal to the others before passing them to TfL.
Ideally there should be a few countdown displays on Hither Green Lane, it is the case though that even just one anywhere along Hither Green Lane would increase the reliability of the service, and that’s another argument for having them.

And good point on the 181 and 225 stop at Lewisham, will pass this on through the right channel, mind you, when you think about it it’s one of the issues that the countdown displays would go quite a way to solve.